Everton boss David Moyes has opted to focus on the positives following his side’s 2-0 defeat to Manchester City at Goodison Park on Saturday. Late goals from Nico O’Reilly and Mateo Kovacic sealed the job for Pep Guardiola’s side.
The Blues gave a strong account of themselves against last season’s champions. James Tarkowski struck the woodwork from a corner while Jarrad Branthwaite missed a golden opportunity to give the hosts the lead.
“We’ve done an awful lot of good things and we’re getting better. It says a lot that we’re disappointed to lose 2-0 against Manchester City. I’m sort of smiling that people think we should be disappointed. I am, but we’ve got to remember how good a side they are,” Moyes told Sky Sports after the game.
Everton had to make a massive change to the backline after Tarkowski was forced off the pitch following a hamstring injury just six minutes after the interval. His replacement, Michael Keane, didn’t cover himself in glory and had an afternoon to forget.
“It is probably quality. Their subs came on and helped them. I’m not sure we had the same. We needed to find a way to get a goal but I genuinely think the injury to James Tarkowski was a big blow to us. It looks like a hamstring injury but what it is we don’t know at the moment.”
Keane entered the referee’s book minutes after coming on and failed to deal with a bouncing ball, inadvertently directing it onto Omar Marmoush’s run instead. He was also caught on his heels and failed to cover O’Reilly’s near post run which broke the deadlock for City in the 84th minute.
“I thought for 60 minutes we did a lot of good things. I thought we played well in the first half but the injury to Tarkowski affected the side. Ultimately we didn’t do well enough in the last 15-20 minutes and that cost us,” Moyes signed off.